“I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone” covers Dickinson’s life through the early-'70s, skipping over his later career as a go-to producer for alternative rock bands in the '80s and '90s. While it includes stories of his more famous encounters with the Rolling Stones, Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan, and his often hilarious Zelig-like experiences in the Memphis and Southern studio scene, the book also offers deep, often moving philosophical digressions unrelated to music.

The memoir has just been published by the University Press of Mississippi and will be the subject of several local public readings and performances over the next couple of weeks, starting tomorrow night at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

As a Memphis music writer over parts of the past couple of decades, I crossed paths with Dickinson several times and was always enriched by the experience. In interviews, the things I remember most often didn’t surface in the pieces I was writing, either because they were tangents we found ourselves on or, in one case, because he asked that it be left out.

Talking to him for the first time, for an oral history of the Sex Pistols' Memphis show, Dickinson offered a contrarian viewpoint on the concert (the band was all Sid Vicious) and then another on what he suggested was a similarly great and memorable Memphis concert, a notorious Guns n’ Roses show at The Pyramid he’d taken his son. “It was great. All you could hear was the bass and an occasional [expletive].

Years later, interviewing him on the occasion of his own -- best to my ears -- album “Jungle Jim & the Voodoo Tiger,” we spent most our time on a tangent about our mutual adoration of Chuck Berry’s music, from “No Money Down” to “Tulane.” When Berry died earlier this year, I thought of Dickinson. And as a big Replacements fan, I loved the stories he told me about recording the band’s “Pleased to Meet Me,” an album that turns 30 this year, even if one of those stories couldn’t be printed. The ones that could were pretty great.

In-between, soon after the Sex Pistols interview, I met Dickinson for the first time, at his family Zebra Ranch studio compound in the north Mississippi hill country, where he pointed out a piano, former used at Stax, decomposing in the yard, like a living sculpture (you can see it now at the Memphis Music Hall of Fame) and talked Memphis wrestling history while my photographer and his sons were conducting the primary business for which we’d come down.

I haven’t gotten ahold of the memoir yet, but Dickinson is one of the great Memphis voices, and not just in the realm of music. I look forward to having that voice in my head for 250 pages.

I'm going somewhere else in the Fadeout today -- somewhere I think Dickinson would enjoy -- but I'll double up on music and play a personal Dickinson favorite, a cover of a song from his old Memphis buddy Bob Frank.

Knowledge Bowl Recap: Arlington 335, Millington Central 280: The first Knowledge Bowl semifinal is set, as Arlington will move on to face Lausanne Collegiate School in the Final Four round.

As the final score indicates, this match wasn’t easy for Arlington, but it also wasn’t terribly dramatic. Millington Central jumped out to a very early lead, but Arlington pulled ahead late in the first round on an Extra Credit question on the largest Canadian territory (“Nunavut” -- news to me) and maintained their advantage throughout the match.

This match was notable for featuring six underclassmen among the schools’ eight respective starters, including sophomore and junior team captains and a freshman in the mix. The Knowledge Bowl futures are bright for Arlington and Millington Central.

For Millington, bowtie-clad sophomore Rockwell, who leads this year’s Knowledge Bowl All-Name Team, also lead the way, with 75 points on the buzzer, including a math question, a question about the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the correct identification of the gourd as a source of the musical instrument the maracas. A tough beat for Rockwell, but now he’ll have more time to finish reading “Dances With Dragons.”

Junior Millington captain Jaryn, a fan of the Memphis Grizzlies and computers, wants to be a journalism major. The 9:01 felt he was speaking to us though the screen when he noted, “Computers have enabled people to write five or six columns a week.” (Nods gravely.)

Rounding out the Millington Central squad were junior Gabriel, who loves food and loves to doodle (some of us come to wisdom earlier than others; Gabriel is an old soul) and senior Ian, who ends his Knowledge Bowl career and heads to UT-Chattanooga. If Rockwell will have more time to read fantasy fiction, Ian plans to use his extra time to write some. (Subjects? “Standard stuff. Dragonslaying, patricide.”) The Millington Central squad had personality. They will be missed.

Arlington got a balanced effort in triumph, from sophomore tennis player and future engineer Keegan, UT-Knoxville-bound senior Nick, sophomore NFL fan and musician Spencer, and speech-team freshman (!) Crew, who scored 70 points off the buzzer and may own this thing before it’s all done.

In next week’s quarterfinal, Christian Brothers will face White Station. As always, you can watch along at 9 a.m. Saturdays on WREG Channel-3.

Quick-and-Pop: The best thing that happened to the Memphis Grizzlies over the weekend was the Oklahoma City Thunder. In falling 118-87 in Houston last night, the Thunder surpassed the Grizzlies as biggest loser of the NBA playoff weekend. The Grizzlies have had a day to mull over their own 29-point opening loss in San Antonio and will try to adjust tonight in Game 2, which tips at 8:30 p.m. on TNT. (Cavaliers-Pacers is the early game.)

Happening in Memphis Today: It’s day baseball at AutoZone Park, where the Memphis Redbirds host Oklahoma City. First pitch is at 11:05 a.m.

The Fadeout: The 9:01 doesn’t publish on Sundays -- he says with gratitude and a twinge of fear this will give someone an idea -- so in honor of what is perhaps the most populated church day of the year, here’s a 1968 hymn of sorts from Memphis garage-rockers the Box Tops.

Reach Chris Herrington at chris.herrington@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @chrisherrington and @herringtonNBA.